ENHANCINGEFFECTOFESSENTIALOILSONTHEPENETRATIONOF5┐FLUOROURACILTHROUGHRATSKI

Three essential oils as penetration enhancers for 5-fluorouracil(5-FU)were studiedusing excised rat skin,The oils used were euealyptljs, pepper mint and turpentine. AZone was used forcomparison,The enhancing effect of the oils was found to be less than that of azone, but all the oils usedenhanced the permeation of 5-FU, Eucalyptus oil was found to be the most activel eausing about 60 foldincrease,while peppermint and turpentine caused 46 and 28 fold increase,respectively.Eucalyptus oil wasfurther studied by grading it into 5 fractions according to difference in beiling points, It was found that theiractivities incrcased as their beiling point increased, With all enhancers increased partition coefficients wereobserved but the diffusion coefficient values obtained were comparati vely higher The mode of action ofthese accelerants may be described by combined processes of partition and diffusion,the diffusion processbeing dominant.